David Gillies founded the brewery in 1998 in the picturesque Lake Wanaka because he thought the place needed a brewery.

Although, at that time the craft beer culture in the US was starting to bloom, here in NZ the beer market was still boring and controlled by the big conglomerates. It was a real surprise to David when his beers started to win awards at the NZ and AU beer championships.

By the end of the first decade in the 21st century David decided to step out of the brewing business and sell the brewery. The sale came to the attention of Dave and Susan De Vylder who owned the brewery for 5 years.

The brewery is now owned by Jabberwocky Brewery Ltd with owners Ruenell and Mike Wing who considered it a perfect opportunity as they have a passion for brewing and beers. They started brewing at home in the shed years ago and realised they were onto something when locals started knocking on their door to buy beer. Jabberwocky Brewery was born in Central Otago in early 2013.

Today Wanaka Beerworks is a micro brewery with a 700L copper brew system which produces approximately 100,000L a year. As passionate brewers we want to create as many specialty brews as possible, yet operating a small brewery dictates a limited amount of space so we've kept the original Wanaka Beerworks beers and added the Jabberwocky range of products with the occasional seasonal beer rearing it's head.